Lately I have been having a lot of trouble handling my lease. When I first initially rode him, he had all these bells and whistles, I was ecstatic to have him as my lease. He seemed to be the perfect horse to learn on. And, I got a lesson out of it, to boot!

Fast forward to the next time I got the chance to ride him. New rider, new horse. We were riding along and he spooked at the same place he spooked at the day I first rode him (but his owner was riding him then, and schooled him out of it) and went bolting to the other side of the arena. I was able to stick it and calm him down, and go back to working.
Since then, I have been having trouble syncing up with him. I tried the cues I was taught, but I don't think I executed them correctly, and it just made a mess of things. I was constantly off balance, and I felt my seat was becoming poor. Then he started getting in the habit of trotting at specific points, and then eventually breaking into a really fast canter. I stuck them all, except for today. It had become progressively worse, the last time I rode I nearly hopped off after a bolt because it was becoming dangerous, and he, harder to control. It wasn't until today, when all he would do was bolt. And it wasn't the kind I could stick. My nine lives were up. He stopped very abruptly at a fence line, and launched me onto his neck. I realized I wasn't even in the saddle any more! So I somehow managed to fix that mid canter as he stopped abruptly again at the fence line, once more launching me on his neck and I did a quasi-emergency dismount.

I decided that I needed to nip this NOW. No more excuses, no more holding off. I put him back in the cross ties and asked for his owners help. Poor dear... She hurt her back and you could tell she was in serious pain, but she actually helped me.

Turns out it was all my fault. I was teaching him bad habits, and I was just enforcing him to behave badly. Instead of turning circles when he raised his head (a sign that he was ready to bolt), I just tried slowing him down. I let him dictate speeds we were going instead of properly using half halts and using my seat. All the things I was trying NOT to do, I did... And I feel really bad for it. I let him push me around instead of being a leader and taking control. The imbalance I was feeling? I caused myself by leaning forward instead of rolling my shoulders back. Once she told me to, I felt so much more in control and balanced.

I have decided until I can better control his bells and whistles, I will only ride during lessons with his owner. At least the ride ended on a good note, when I was able to actually collect him, control him, and get him working his butt and round out a bit. It felt great being able to do that, and having a beautifully collected canter out of him instead of some messy thing where my butt flops in the air and my hands are fussing with the contact and stuff.

Bleh. I just needed to get this off my chest. I still feel pretty crappy about it, but I can only learn from it. I hope.Posted via Mobile Device

Don't feel bad! Everyone goes through issues like this at some point or another. Only difference is, most people take far longer to figure out/accept that it's their fault and not the horse's. All you can do is be proactive and try to improve your skills as a horsewoman (which will in turn translate to an improvement in your horse), which is what you're doing :)
I agree with your plan of just sticking to lesson for a little while. Once you get more comfortable and confident with the horse, you'll be able to go back to riding outside of lessons.

Thank you! I had thought it was just him being fresh from just being put back into work, and that the weather was putting him off. The spook was also my fault because he had grown too fat for his girth (we got an extender which works perfectly now) and I managed to tighten it up on him, when I should have asked if there was another we could use.

Yeah, my confidence is pretty crushed right now. I try to be really careful, but today just made me feel like it was one (stupid) mistake after another. After lunging, I wasn't watching my excess rope and he stepped on it, it slipped behind him and he panicked. Kept backing up, almost into the edge of the road where rocks line it. Instead of risking injury, I let him go and he ran off into the arena to kivits with a mare. Luckily he came to me once I entered and it was all kosher.

I made another stupid mistake that I really shouldn't have done as well, but saying what it was would make me look like a complete idiot for it. Bah!

Gonna be walking on pins and needles for a while. I especially hate that I had to have his owner school him for me while she was in such pain...

To me it sounds like if you want to continue riding this horse, you need to take lessons on another horse to get your confidence back so you aren't "stepping on eggshells" because that won't help this horse or YOU either.

Try not to let your lack of confidence get the best of you. Horses can pick up on that and many will try to take advantage of that. Fake it if you have to ;)

You'll be fine, I promise. The desire to learn and improve is there. Just be patient with yourself and try not to get frustrated. Just continue to look for the lesson to be learned when things don't go according to plan. Things will get easier!

I think one of my problems was that I was over careful in the first place. Didn't want to do something that could ruin him, or give bad habits, yet that's what I did in the first place. Doesn't help he has a dominant personality anyway.

I actually think it takes a very educated and selfless rider to admit when you are the one making the mistakes. It says a lot about you and your desire to better yourself as a rider.

I feel like a lot of people, myself included, reach a certain point in their riding sometimes where they feel like they can handle anything, so they forget their good habits and get a little sloppy. Sometimes we all need a reality check from our horses that they can only do what we ask for if we are asking the right questions.

Kudos for realizing that you aren't ready to handle this horse on your own. You'll certainly be a better rider for it in the long run. :)

Register Now

In order to be able to post messages on the The Horse Forum forums, you must first register.

Already have a Horse Forum account?
Members are allowed only one account per person at the Horse Forum, so if you've made an account here in the past you'll need to continue using that account. Please do not create a new account or you may lose access to the Horse Forum. If you need help recovering your existing account, please Contact Us. We'll be glad to help!

New to the Horse Forum?Please choose a username you will be satisfied with using for the duration of your membership at the Horse Forum. We do not change members' usernames upon request because that would make it difficult for everyone to keep track of who is who on the forum. For that reason, please do not incorporate your horse's name into your username so that you are not stuck with a username related to a horse you may no longer have some day, or use any other username you may no longer identify with or care for in the future.

User Name:

Password

Please enter a password for your user account. Note that passwords are case-sensitive.

Password:

Confirm Password:

Email Address

Please enter a valid email address for yourself.

Email Address:

OR

Log-in

User Name

Password

Remember Me?

Human Verification

In order to verify that you are a human and not a spam bot, please enter the answer into the following box below based on the instructions contained in the graphic.

Old Thread Warning

This thread is more than 90 days old. When a thread is this old, it is often better to start a new thread rather than post to it. However, If you feel you have something of value to add to this particular thread, you can do so by checking the box below before submitting your post.I am aware that this is an old thread and I want to revive it rather than starting a new thread.